History of Whistlin' Hollar
An elderly Halfling sits by the fire in his home, watching his grandchildren as they come trickling in, remembering the stories of the past and hoping that they will sit still long enough to hear the tale. “Come in and sit. Your parents told me they want you to hear the history of Whistlin Holler so no one ever forgets. Well, this story is full of action, danger, dragons, sorcerers, and a smattering of us. About three thousand years ago, the lands of this continent were very different than now. Humans lived mostly on the eastern and northern sides of the continent, on the other side of that far mountain range. The dwarves lived in their Holds in the mountains west of here, and as far as dragons, well, they lived any damn place they liked. The big difference between then and now is that in the center of this continent, the area of Wretches was fertile farmland, beautiful mountains and hills, and one of the prettiest rivers you could have ever seen. It flowed from the central mountains down through the plains, and eventually ended not far from here. Now, you may have noticed that Whistlin Holler is sort of built like a fortress, with the walls being 500 feet tall and 50 feet wide at the bottom, 25 feet wide at the top, and with all those parapets and guard towers. Well, the reason for that is because the town was once known as Clutch and was ruled by a family of Evil Dragons. The name of the family of dragons has been stripped from all records because of the Great Upheaval two thousand years ago, from when our ancestors rose up against the depravity and torture inflicted upon us by those in power. You see, this family of dragons was some of the vilest creatures to ever walk the earth. Earliest records from that time show that they worked our ancestors like animals, barely feeding them enough to survive, but expecting us to farm and mine and build monuments in their honor. Honor, heh, they had none. But you see, those evil dragons weren’t the only ones around here and a group of good dragons saw our plight and began to help us form a resistance. Since they were dragons, they tended to plan for the long haul, their plans for rebellion took generations to come to pass, but when they did, oh-boy, was there a huge, knockdown, drag out brawl that lasted weeks. You see, the good dragons came from three families of dragons that lived nearby, Bronze, Brass, and Copper. I am sure you are familiar with the fact that some of those dragons have stuck around since then and help and protect our town. Well, on to the action. When the dragons who will not be named were ruling, they were very violent and would kill with the slightest provocation. A bronze dragon by the name of Mynnurh began to intercede on behalf of the Halflings and Gnomes of Clutch. He would provide food and bandages, passing himself off as a Halfling himself. He was the leader of the Resistance and worked with a copper dragon by the name of Tazmihara, who spent most of her time entertaining the downtrodden to give them hope and a means of distraction. The brass dragons working as a part of the Resistance kept their identities unknown, providing protection in the fields for the workers, but never revealing their true forms. Working with these dragons was a group of wizards and clerics from the Delves, who built a network of underground hiding places where they were able to store weapons, armor, and food. The most famous was a Dwarf by the name of Thosana Jordagaul, a renowned fighter and tactician. After ten years of preparation, the Dwarves began arming the residents of Clutch and being such industrious individuals that Halflings and Gnomes are, we began constructing machines to help bring down the evil ones. The initial fighting was between the evil dragons themselves. Tazmihara managed to convince the evil ones to fight for power when the Eldest of their family died. The evil ones battled for a week and a half, killing more than half of the evil family of dragons. When they got down to the last three, they finally figured out that they were being played, and began to attempt to regain control of Clutch. By that time, all of the hidden weapons had been brought out and the battlements on the top of the wall were fully armed. Thosana Jordagaul had trained many of the Halflings and Gnomes in tactics and had set up rally points and a series of commands for when the evil dragons returned. Since the evil dragons were not expecting any sort of rebellion in their slaves, they were completely unprepared for the assault that rained down on them. In the first sortie, the eldest of the remaining evil dragons died with ballista bolts through its entire body. When the other two saw how armed Clutch had become, they pulled back and began destroying the outlying farms. Luckily, everyone had expected this and were either inside The Citadel or had retreated to the hidden underground chambers leading to the city. The two remaining evil dragons were both just juveniles, so they lacked the power to be able to retake their city. As a last ditch attempt, one of the juveniles flew extremely high over the town and dive bombed the town to try to get to their cache of weapons and armor in their stronghold. What was waiting for him was one of the largest bombs ever created by our kind. When he got down to his armory in the bottom of the building, the bombs were triggered and the entire building collapsed upon him. The final remaining evil dragon was grabbed by Mynnurh and Tazmihara, to be brought before the remaining dragons to be judged for her actions. From that day forward, the Bronze and Copper dragons have lived nearby, acting as guardians to protect us from the retribution of any evil dragons. With the help of Mynnurh and Tazmihara, our ancestors built a set of laws, which we follow to this day. We renamed the town from Clutch to Whistlin Holler and established that no weapons were to be brought into town as a precaution against any sort of uprising ever happening again as well as preventing any sort of assault by outsiders who view us as childlike or weak. Five hundred years after we established our freedom, the Elves showed up in the human civilizations and moved into the center of the continent, building their immense city and believing themselves to be the rulers of the continent. When their Elven King, Orphion came to Whistlin Holler, he attempted to place the city under his protection as a part of his Kingdom but was formally rebuffed by the residents of the town. When one of his generals returned and thought to take the town and neighboring farms by force, Mynnurh and Tazmihara, and their descendants shifted to their dragon forms and took flight to the top of the wall, informing the general that Whistlin Holler was under their protection and unless he wished a war with dragons, he should honor the wishes of the residents and leave. Since that day, Whistlin Holler has been independent of the machinations of those who would try to rule her. After Tefrion’s folly, when the Maeronese Empire was formed, again the challenge came to be put under the yoke of others. Considering how stupidly aggressive the humans ruling Maeron have been, we pay lip service as ‘citizens’ of Maeron, but we still do everything the same way we have for two thousand years.” With that, the old man leans back in his chair and looks at the rapt faces of his grandchildren. “Any questions?” A little hand comes up in front, “what happened to the bad dragon?” The grandfather speaks, “we don’t know. She was taken off for judgment and never returned. We chose to remove the evil dragons from our histories, wiping their names out as if they never existed so that none could ever honor their evil, despicable ways.”